With a long standing tradition for making highly addictive role
playing and turn based strategy games, New World Computing
(NWC) has unleashed Heroes of Might and Magic III (HOMM3)
on an unsuspecting population. Boasting new heroes, new maps,
new spells, new EVERYTHING, this game has a feature list that will
make your head spin. But hype is hype and homey don't play dat,
so let's dig in and see what the game is really like.

The story is set in the kingdom of Erathia which should be familiar
to anyone who played the earlier HOMM games. Apparently the
good king has died leaving his kingdom is up for grabs. In true
evil tradition the baddies occupying neighboring territories waste
no time in jumping on the unprotected region. Things really start
to get messy when the ex-kings daughter Catharine Ironfist shows
up on the scene to claim the throne. As you would expect in any
good HOMM game, all out war ensues with the winner taking the
kingdom of Erathia.

The overall packaging of the game is very polished. A simple yet
effective autorun menu system is used to install the game and
preview other upcoming products from 3DO (check out the
Requiem demo sometime when you're bored, it's pretty cool). Also
included is a map editor and after using it, I have to say this is by
far the easiest editor I have ever used. Not only can you whip up
new maps in no time, but you can also make *good looking,
functional* maps. This is a far cry from some of the unusable
garbage editors that seem to find their way onto game CDs these
days (Total Annihilation anybody?). Thumbs up for the map editor
– it certainly adds to the replay value.

The game types are quite varied in HOMM3. Single player options
include training missions, single scenario, and campaign mode.
Campaign mode is certainly the most interesting of the bunch and
you have the choice of six different campaigns – each from a
different perspective. This is a interesting twist as it lets you see
the game from the shoes of the good guys or the cloven boots of
the baddies. Before each campaign mission you are treated to a
nice rendered cutscene while a voice actor runs down the
background storyline and the terms of victory for the map. In
addition to this you can choose from one of three "bonuses" to
take into the mission which can range from an artifact to extra
troops to bonus skills. I initially expected the campaigns to be
rather epic in length but I was rather disappointed to find out they
are only a few missions long (perhaps the later campaigns are
longer?). Multiplayer is a different story however. Kudos to NWC
for the wide variety of multiplayer options. Choices include IPX,
TCP/IP, modem to modem, direct cable connect, heat.net,
mplayer.com, zone.com, and a "hotseat" option where more than
one player can play on a single machine by switching places
between turns. The game style is quite customizable with different
size maps and victory conditions as well as the ability to ally with
other players or even backstab an ally. I wish more game
companies would put this kind of effort into multiplayer gaming.
Admittedly a turn-based game can seem to drag out as you wait
for the other player. To combat this, NWC has added a timer limit
option and the ability to scroll around the map to look at your
cities and heroes while you are waiting for your turn. This goes a
long way towards keeping all players occupied and involved. One
addition that would be really nice with a turn-based game is a
play-by-email option so the gamers can take turns at their leisure.

There have been some solid modifications to the gameplay since
the last HOMM release. Hero inventories have been changed over
to a "paper doll" inventory system whereby you can only equip
one weapon and one shield and so on as opposed to the old
system which just gave you a certain number of slots that you
could fill with any type of artifact (yeah like my hero can swing
eight swords at once…). The hero types have also been diversified
– there are now sixteen flavours of heroes such as Death Knight,
Necromancer, Heretic, Beastmaster, and Alchemist. For every two
types of hero there is aalso a corresponding type of fortress where
than hero can recruit more troops specific to their class (eg.
Skeletons for the Death Knight and Archers for the Cleric). There
have been a number of new war machines added, so now you can
control a first aid tent, a catapult, a ballista, and an ammo cart.
Unfortunately these toys seemed to play a very limited role and I
would have liked to see the ability to control a whole army of
ballistas instead of just a single wimpy dart chucker. One of my
favorite new additions was the "tactics" skill which allows you to
position all your creatures before a battle starts which is a huge
strategic advantage. Another significant addition is that of the
underworld; by entering various portals placed around the map,
you can enter an underground realm with its own set of treasures
and obstacles. This makes for an interesting tactic of sneaking
behind enemy lines through these tunnels.

To steal a quote from 3DO's website, "expect not a revolution, but
an evolution" and as far as the graphics go, this is certainly the
case. NWC has long been (in)famous for their hand drawn
artwork; if you have played any of the Might and Magic RPG’s you
will know exactly what I mean. I’ve never been a big fan of this
style of artwork so I was relieved to learn that in keeping up with
the times NWC has changed all of the characters over to
pre-rendered 3D models. On screen resolution has also been
jacked up a little as you can now play in 800x600 with 65,000
colours. I have one burning question for NWC though: why not let
the user pick their own resolution from a list instead of writing it in
stone? 800x600 is just swell on a 14" or 15" monitor but even that
gets ugly on anything 17" or bigger… something to keep in mind
for HOMM4. Aside from this minor issue, I found all of the
in-game graphics to be sharp and colourful (NWC calls this "bright
and polite" whatever that means) and HOMM series veterans
will feel right at home. Gameplay alternates between the
overhead map view dubbed "the adventure screen" where you
navigate your heroes around a large map and the zoomed in
battle scene whenever you go into combat. Both screens have
been enlarged to keep in line with the increased screen
resolution. Character animation in battle is pretty straightforward
and I was certainly happy to see that all of Erathias creatures are
good sports so when you go to attack from behind, your victim will
turn around first to enable you to get a solid whack at their face
(sic).

I have always seen NWC as a rather conservative company that
sticks with proven technology rather than pushing the envelope so
I was very surprised to see that all of the HOMM3 in-game music is
in .mp3 format. The resulting tracks are very high quality and
make all the old midi tracks sound pretty lame. The songs are
diverse and context sensitive so the music will change as you
enter specific areas or go into battle. The only problem with
.mp3’s is they use a fair bit of CPU time so if you have anything
less than a p2 you may want to switch the music off after you've
heard a few tracks because it really lags the game. One change I
would recommend as far as music goes: get some choral music in
there! The battle hymns in SSI’s Fantasy General were fantastic
and I’d like to hear more tracks like that. Just make sure you hire
professionals to do the job – I don’t want to hear NWC
programmers singing Ave Maria off key. Sound effects are
quite functional and although not as crucial in a turn based game
as a shooter (you can’t be surprised from behind when it’s your
turn), they keep you in the action. I would have liked the FX to be
a little darker and less cartoony. When a Bone Dragon sounds
tears the side out of a Serpicore, I wanna KNOW it! Oh and in
case you were wondering, yes - the sound effect for a flying
creature still sounds like a pair of corduroy pants rubbing together.
Then again, until I’ve had lunch with an Archangel or chilled out
with a Cyclops lord, I can’t say too much about realism in "fantasy
sounds".

You can’t go wrong with Heroes of Might and Magic III. New World
Computing has created a solid, well rounded game with great
multiplayer options that will hold the interest of any strategy
gamer. No doubt there will be some complaints that the game is
too similar to HOMM2 and I would agree that it does look to be
very similar at first glance but there have been a lot of changes
made that really add to the depth of the game. Overall a very
solid effort. One note to NWC though – let’s see you take some
chances next time instead of playing it conservative. Using a tried
and true game recipe makes a good game, coming up with
something revolutionary makes a GREAT game.

Thanks to Kizer for his help with this review.

Highs: excellent multiplayer options, sharp rendered
graphics, almost every aspect of the game has been improved.